This invention relates to devices which extract energy from wave action in a body of fluid. More particularly, it concerns the extraction of energy from wave action utilizing a float actuated pump.
Various types of devices which attempt to extract energy from wave action in a body of fluid or water have been known for some time. These devices have generally used some type of float to rise with rising wave action and various types of apparatus to reload, or pull the float down, as the float falls with falling wave action. Most of the prior devices are relatively elaborate pumping systems which use a complex multi-level arrangement of elevated reservoirs or chambers, piping, and valves to receive pumped fluid and reload the pumping device; or which use the weight of the float or pumping device itself to reload the pumping device, and which require the load-bearing support of the floor of the body of water to resist the downward force of the pumped fluid or weighted pumping device as the pumping device is reloaded. Other prior devices, which do not use the load-bearing support of the floor of the body of water to reload, use relatively complex arrangements of springs and pumps, weighted floats and springs, or a float to buoy the cylinder from the sea floor and a weighted float to both upstroke the piston and reload the piston. A drawback to the prior wave energy extraction devices is that they are relatively complex and expensive to maintain and manufacture. Since one of the main purposes of developing wave energy extraction devices is to reduce the cost of energy, the costs involved in maintaining and manufacturing the devices is important to the practicability of the devices. Thus, there is a need in the art for a wave energy extraction device which is inexpensive to manufacture and maintain.